My GN HAS BEEN STOLEN ON 10/18/04

[Dylan]

Hello All MY 87 GRAND NATIONAL WAS STOLEN.
HERE IS THE VIN# IF ANYONE SEES OR HEARS ANYTHING PLEASE RESPOND. AS WITH ALL GN OWNERS, THIS IS AND WAS MY BABY!

VIN # 1g4gj1171hp459968

THANK YOU ALL!
THIS IS MY SECOND CAR STOLEN IN 2 YEARS!
GOT BACK THE FIRST ONE 6 MONTHS LATER AND THE GUY THAT WAS DRIVING IT GOT LET OFF.
DAVID POPE OF INDIANA WAS THAT MAN!

THANKS AGAIN DYLAN

 

[XLR8]

I could come up with a few other things that should happen to them.
Good luck getting your baby back.

 

[Dylan]

Just letting you all know that I recieved a call from the police department letting me know that My Car has been Found. Dont have much information yet but the police said that i would get it back in a couple days. So That must be best Christmas gift i have ever gotten. So Thank you All

 

[Scott Long]

Hopefully someone just decided to drive around in style and didn't beat on it excessively, hit stuff with it, or remove parts from it. I pray that its in the same condition it was in when you parked it.

Was it in a garage or outside? I would suggest you get a good alarm w/ starter bypass and maybe a hidden kill switch on the starter solenoids power wire you can hide up under the dash or in the glove box, or put it anywhere. G-Bodys are pretty simple to hotwire sadly.

 

[Dylan]

POOP!

Well I've jumped the gun and talked way to soon!

Got the Car back yeah, so. Well guys I happen to know that each and every one of you guys would cry if you saw the condition. The people that stole the car took everything. And i mean EVERYTHING The entire interior was stripped along with the front end and rear end and the turbo and intercooler and radiator. ( 3 inch from my pal Gary) Even the Gauges where gone and scanmaster and Even the cool little shifter with the GN emblem on it. Well they didn't realize i had a Ported intake so i got that! Yaaay Oh and the exhaust.

But on a lighter note my spirit hasn't been broken because like all of our Buicks we know that they were great cars to us. I learned alot about my car and learned to fix things on it and upgrades. My car was taken and destroyed but I WILL HAve Another and it'll be just as GRAND as the Last. It may take awhile but you can rest assured that I will be pulled beside my fellow GN owners once again. Every one With a GN, Protect it! Get GPS or Something. I wish i did. But non the less i will leave you with MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! I will be waving and Admiring all your GN's as I see you pass me

Thanks Again Guys

 

[Gary Wells]

I am sorry for your loss and it saddens my heart to hear of such an account of events on X-mas eve.
Posting an approxinate location/locale of where this car was stolen from might caution other owners to be wary.
I am sure that you will be looking for parts on E-bay and all of the turbo buick sites. Do not let this spoil your X-mas and New Years.

 

[DJay]

This is Dylan's brother. Saw the car yesterday for the 1st time since it was "recovered." If you can call it that.

It was stolen in Bloomingdale IL. out of the parking lot of his apartment complex. Unfortunantly, we hadn't installed an alarm or cut-out switch on it. They popped the steering column and started her right up. :\ This has proven to be a very tramatic lesson for both him and I. Needless to say, I'll be installing an alarm / column collar / kill switch and possibly a GPS system this year.

They found the car in a crack neighborhood of Chicago where the cops guess it was part of a "cars for rocks" deal that's becoming more and more popular with crack addicts.

Please join me in a moment of prayer this holiday:

"Lord, whoever did this to Dylan's car; please make his manhood shrivel and fall off in the shower this morning...... and while yer at it ....."

 

[phillyturbosix]

Post some pictures of it or what's left of it if you would. Maybe this will send a message out to the other GN owners out there. Like when you see that smashed up car on the front lawn of a high school that a drunk driver was in... Lock these cars down!! I can't believe in this day in age people have no theft systems on these cars at all. It takes me about 10 mins to start my car when I take it out. I have kill switches for the kill switches. Colum guard and i've got everything cut off. Fuel, Spark, and ECM. It takes about 10 mins to install a kill switch in these cars and something as small as that will stop someone.
I ran a tow truck for awhile back in the 80's and it would make me sick when I towed a gutted GN. I use to work for 3 of the major insurance companys towing the recovered cars. It was so fun going into those crack neighborhoods and dragging a shelled GN out. I wanted to drop a bomb on the entire area and I didn't even own a GN! In the late 80's they were strolen to much around here. I have admired these cars from the day I sat in one in the showroom at the Buick dealer near my house. I've learned the hard way plenty of times (owned a bunch of GM's) like you just did with your car and I hope the POS who stole it get his c0ck caught in a meat slicer but if you own a turbo Buick you need some kill switches on it!
These cars are around but if you think of how many were stolen and turned into a shell it's sick. A good friend of mine had a beautiful low milage full option GN stolen in the summer and he is so sick. He bought the car brand new and it's been in a garage since. Never raced it and treated it like a child. Some crack head wanted it more then him I guess. He got his back in a shell as well. Good luck on your search for a new GN and please lock it down tight! We need to keep these cars around for years to come!!! GPS is next on my car so I can suprise the POS while they are taking it apart with some firepower. I can say one thing... my GN gets stolen.. you will read about me in the news

 

[the wrath]

hey philly since u used to drive a tow truck are there anyways that u can stop someone from towing your car?

 

[phillyturbosix]

Originally posted by the wrath
hey philly since u used to drive a tow truck are there anyways that u can stop someone from towing your car?

Well no car is ever "safe" but you can slow them down or sometimes stop them for sure. The flatbed is the thing that will always get you. Some people say turn your wheels all the way to the right or left when parking your car. This will slow a normal tow truck operator down a bit and break a flat bed operators nuts a little as well. Blocking your car in is also good. Then they have to move a car to get to yours and almost no one will bother with that. It's all about taking those little extra steps and being alert when you park that might save your car. I always make sure no one is anywhere around me or following me before I park. Some say this is all anal.. but as long as it keeps my car from being stolen I don't give a $hit! I also repo'd cars for sometime.
Your best bet is to just have things that deter a theif away. Loud alarm system is a good one. Keep in mind when putting a alarm in your car DO NOT put the horn under the hood of the car in plain view!! Bad! If I hooked a car and the alarm went off.. I would slim jim the door open (takes about 2 seconds ) and cut the wire or just tear the horn out from under the hood. Some cars I would just lay under it and pull really hard on the hood release cable and that would pop the hood as well. My car.. I will give you 100 bucks if you find the horn and an hour to find my alarm horn. It took my over 2 hours to mount it where I have it Every time I see a GN at a show with a alarm horn sitting in plain veiw I laff. Stupid! Most car theif's will check the car out and see how easy it is esp if it's in plain site of view. In a yard or open parking lot. But if they see a colum lock and blinking lights they know it won't be as easy Dylan's car. Just keep in mind when parking.. can a tow truck get near your car? If so how easy would it be to pick it up by the back (fastest way to hook and go) backing in with the wheels turned all the way is good if your parking in the open. But a car blocking your car in is the best bet. If your in a open lot just have a friend park in front of you. Hopefully this will save a few GN's!

 

[MaxVO2]

I'd be looking on E-bay for some of the parts you had taken from your car. I live near Washington, DC and there is A LOT of car theft that goes on here. It's mostly idiots who slim jim your car and pop the column, but they seem to look for easy targets like an older car with the typical GM column from that era to joyride.

If someone really wants your car, they will take it. I have kill switches, and other devices on mine, and it is garaged every night. I can't imagine having my car out in a parking lot with NO protection of any kind. It takes like 30 seconds or less for someone to bust the column and take the car, with all of those nice aftermarket, and shiny parts you worked hard to get.

In some other countries, car-jacking is super common, and if you resist you just get shot. So owners have a switch set up that will let the jacker drive off but the car shuts off in like 30 seconds. If you've stolen a car and end up in traffic somewhere with a dead car, you aren't likely to call AAA.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your loss. a neighbor down the street has had THREE Jeep Cherokee's of his stolen in the past 5 years. He had an alarm, and a CLUB, etc.. gone. I helped him put in a simple kill-switch a few months back, cost like $3. No attempts yet, but the last three Jeeps were recovered with broken columns so that avenue has now been shut down with the switch hopefully.

Good luck

Billy
Montgomery Village, MD

 

[peggybranan]

My 87 Turbo GN was stolen too. 2-1-04

I have pictures of it what was left, he worked here for the city , of Douglasville, GA he changed the Vin to a 84 driving it with a drive out tag, we went to court May 22, 2006
the d-- judge gave him 10 years , 1 to serve , 9 on probation , and a $700
fine . The stupid jury did not understand what theift by reciving stolen goods or running a chop shop. he has done this before . if you want to know what this ahole looks like go to Georgia Dept. of Corrections and type in his last name Maclin . I even have a picture of him standing in front of it.
I would like everone to see the pictures but I don't know who to send them to .

P.S. I bought it new, and it was my baby too. now it belongs to Nationwide Ins. the pictures make me sick every time I look at them.
pbranan

 

[2swoosh]

effective anti theft devices

how about a lockable removable steering wheel by Grant? park your car in front of any object with the wheels fully turned to either side then remove the steering wheel and install the cap on. There's also a company that sells the "boot" , they can not tow a car with this thing attached to your front or rear tire. I used to work in a really bad area and i saw a lot of characters eyeballing my 87 GN, checkin it out but goes away when they see there's no steering wheel on it or if they see you have a brake pedal lock on it. Just some ideas to help out.

 

[my85grandnation]

The brake locks are worthless like the steering wheel club. Ive heard of cars that were stolen that had these on them and when the car was found it was still in place. They just used the emergency brake to stop the car.

 

[phillyturbosix]

lockable removable steering wheel by Grant... No good. I towed about 5 cars over the years with that set up on them that were stolen. What they do it get a huge pair of vise grips and clamp it to that cap and drive away. The first time I ran into one of them is when I had to tow a stolen 89 IROC from the 25th police district. The officer told me they chased the guy from Franklin Mills all the way down to south philly at high speeds on I95. He finally ran out of gas on some side street in south philly and when they walked up to the car there was no steering wheel! Right before he bailed out he took the vice grips off and tossed them. So yea.. that don't work.. just makes them come back later with the vice grips

 

[2swoosh]

how about the boot Jimmy? do they work?

 

[my85grandnation]

Im sure a boot would work since they are fastened to hte wheel and wont allow it to turn.

 

[phillyturbosix]

Well the boot can be good as long as a tow truck can't lift the car on the end the boot is on. The thing that really gets you is long term storage. I know a good number of guys with muscle cars in Philly where they don't go see the car for months on end. So it gives them plenty of time to figure a way to get the car.

I'm looking into some bollards. They mount in the ground at the door of your garage. Some fold down and some go into the ground. The lock is pretty much inside so you can't get to it if you wanted to hack the lock. One of those high end locks as well. The one I'm looking at you drill down and it pushes into the ground flat. Because they are long and smooth a tow truck can't get a cable around it to tear it off. Figure those would be a really nice way to lock it down in the garage. There is no way to ram it over. Now I was just searching around and I found these... http://www.boundary-fences.com/bollards.htm remote control and all! Now that's the way to go! Put that at the end of your garage or driveway and your set! Right in NY as well. If anyone gets something like this before me let me know how it worked out. But if you have a garage and or driveway where you can't really get out other then one entrance this is the way to go IMO!